this is g.w. news that live from berlin and donald trump freezes funding to the world health organization the u.s. president accuses the body of covering up the spread of coronavirus and mismanaging its response to the pandemic also coming up on the show. the international monetary fund warns of a bleak forecast for the world with the coronavirus smothering growth the i.m.f. says 2020 could be the worst downturn since the great depression. and south korea holds the world's 1st national election in the coronavirus era people there

are casting their ballots wearing masks and plastic gloves staying at least a metre apart. i'm claire richardson a welcome to the show as donald trump faces criticism of his early handling of the coronavirus crisis he has delivered another blow to the international world order the us president says he is halting u.s. payments to the world health organization he accused it of failing in its response to the pandemic saying lives could have been saved if the w.h.o. had done a better job investigating early reports in china. the w.h.o. filed in its basic jussi to save lives those are the words of president trump see amounts to freeze on funding for the u.n. agency. today i'm instructing my administration to halt funding of the

world health organization while a review is conducted as the organization's leading sponsor the united states has a duty to insist on full accountability trump has repeatedly criticized the w.h.o. throughout the pandemic this time claiming its bias towards china is responsible for the viruses rapid spread to other parts of the world. had the w.h.o. done its job to get medical experts into china to objectively assess the situation on the ground and to call out china's lack of transparency the outbreak could have been contained at its source with very little death trump says the roughly $400000000.00 in annual donations will now be reappropriated though he refused to sever america's relationship with the w.h.o. entirely we will continue to engage with the w.h.o. to see if it can make meaningful reforms for the time being we will redirect global

health and directly work with others the us is the worst affected country in the world with more recorded cases and deaths than anywhere else trumps handling of the pandemic has also been widely criticized and his opponents say this latest announcement is nothing more than a deflection tactic. well let's go now to our correspondent stephanie seaman's in washington d.c. stefan president trump has halted funding for the world health organization what reason did he give for this decision and does he have the authority to actually do that. as a number one he gave a very belated. pleasure for this he basically says let me quote that he will hold funding while the review is conducted by his administration quote to assess the w h o's role in severely mismanaging and covering up covering up the spread of the

corona virus that's the reason he gave now can he do that can he hold the funding and we're talking about $400.00 to $500000000.00 every year yes he can but as you can see in the wording here he leaves himself a back door he says he will review the matter and we thought actually here in washington d.c. that this is going to happen because we had to work through this last week already so here you have it review will be conducted by administrator should and the outcome money maybe that the u.s. is now as a major funder for the w h o not paying any more for or contributing to the w h o's mission well for now what will this lack of funding a need for the w.h.s. which has been spearheading the global response to the coronavirus. that's a very good question and i think that's also part of trump's cultureless here he's

trying to stir the pot to w.h.o. w.h.o. has now to absolutely do a little mess and and for the time being trying to skate by without potentially u.s. significant u.s. funding. i really actually don't think it's going to come to this in the end that the u.s. will fully withdraw all funding of the w.h.o. because nobody enjoys critical functions not just for the u.s. but for the rest of the world and as soon as you say w.h.o. pandemics epidemics and what the w.s.j. do does in its mission another word for the us critical comes to mind that's national security anything the w.h.o. dust and doesn't do has an impact on national security faults and and estimates here in the united states for the united states chef and siemens in washington d.c. thank you. well time to take

a look now at other news around the world former u.s. president barack obama has endorsed a democratic contender joe biden in the race for the white house mr obama announced his support for his former vice president in a video message describing biden as the right leader to guide the u.s. report. firefighters in ukraine have extinguished a fire that was threatening the church noble nuclear power plant the forest fires near the abandon site had been burning for 10 days the chernobyl nuclear plant suffered a meltdown in 1986 that spread radioactive fallout across europe. well profits at 2 major u.s. banks plunged in the 1st quarter wells fargo reported an 89 percent drop in earnings that's as it sets aside almost $4000000000.00 to cover potential losses on loans due to the coronavirus pandemic earlier j.p. morgan chase announced a 69 percent drop in quarterly earnings. well

today saw a bleak forecast the likes of which the world has not seen since the 1930 s. the international monetary fund says the global economy is on track this year for the kind of downturn that wrecked economies and lives during the great depression and it has everything to do with the far reaching measures it designed to save lives in the corona virus pandemic. amid lockdowns business shutdowns and travel restrictions to do the job in $1000.00 pandemic the outlook is bleak for the global economy the i.m.f. is now forecasting a decline of 3 percent this year before the pandemic emerged as a grave threat to public health and economic activity the organization was expecting over 3 percent growth in 2020. the i.m.f. chief economist says the current measures to contain the pandemic make a severe slowdown on avoidable markets but this is a deep recession it is

a recession that involves solvency issues it is deeper isn't that in was unemployment rates going up dramatically and these tend to leave scars and while there are many very strong policy actions being taken some of this will spill over into the end the 2nd half of this year into 2021 the i.m.f. is optimistic about a robust recovery next year predicting global growth of 5.8 percent the institution is providing loans to nations that need help in dealing with a pandemic. we are actively deploying our one trillion dollar lending capacity to support vulnerable countries including through rapid dispersing emergency financing. and debt service relief to our poorest member countries and we are calling on official credit has to do to say the i.m.f. caution that its forecast is clouded by on certainty about the path the corona

virus will take a 2nd outbreak of the pandemic next year could make the economic collapse far more extreme. polls have opened in south korea's national assembly elections with unprecedented measures in place to deal with the coronavirus before even being allowed to cast their ballots and voters must wear masks stand at least one metre apart have their temperature taken disinfect their hands and wear gloves. well let's cross now to journalist our frank smith who is standing by for us in seoul this is the world's 1st a major election since the start of the global coronavirus pandemic how is it even possible to hold an election under these conditions. well a couple of things happened here in south korea they're really on the tail end of the curve the south korean government and the measures you know upheld by the public have really stunted the corona virus outbreak here and now you have about 30

cases per day emerging there's about $10000.00 cases in the country all together so people are feeling a little bit safer and as you mentioned in the introduction they're taking extraordinary measures at the polls i visited the advance polling station and advance polling station earlier this week last friday and saturday and saw the measures that were taken the main clue that as you mentioned social distancing everybody and i mean everybody wearing masks everybody getting sanitized at the desks as they went in to the pools and having their temperature checked both with the thermometer gun and with a heat screen and again disinfectant as you as you mentioned so the national election commission here has really done a good job of preparing voters for a safe elections when addition to these preparations what are authorities are doing and to ensure voter turnout to get as many people as possible casting their ballots

. well as i mentioned earlier they had advance voting on friday and saturday and that brought as as you said a record number of about 27 percent out to the polls i think some people wanted to vote early because of the coronavirus wanted to avoid crowds they do have some $14300.00 or so polling stations across the country they're looking to to reach sort of a 60 percent electorate threshold and again almost half of those people have already voted in addition for those $50000.00 people that are in self warranty they've arranged to enable them to vote after pools normally close at 6 o'clock they're going to spend that for an hour and those people that are in cell $450000.00 or so are going to be able to come out they're going to be monitored they're going to have some special measures in terms of their hygenic in the general public safety so again they're doing everything to bring out

a high turnout and how important are these elections for south korea well a couple of things the liberal parties here there's a bloc there's the democratic party and then some other affiliated parties they're in power right now and they're looking to extend that to reach a 180 threshold out about 300 member national assembly if they do that they'll be able to pass almost all the legislation that they might want in addition one of the writings here is the main one of the main writings here and in seoul in the capital seoul is a contest between the former prime minister under the current president enough hyun and the former president under the into peached conservative leader. those 2 are considered prime presidential candidates for that election that will take place in 2022 frank smith and saw thank you.

the biggest coronavirus lockdown in the world is being extended to at least may 3rd india's prime minister narendra modi said people's lives were more important than the economy the restrictions have left millions of workers dependent on food handouts i these migrant workers just want to go home i. did at this train station in mumbai over the last downs extension these workers have been stuck in for 3 weeks without work they're demanding to be allowed to go back home to their families which we are not getting anything the government promised to provide money and amenities but nothing has been delivered yet so. we have nothing to do we have small kids and they are not getting anything to ace what should we do the. prime minister. says the

extension was absolutely necessary. the lockdown will stop the virus spreading to other vulnerable parts of the country many with him. are going to lose jobs businesses are going to collapse unemployment is going to rise and hungry people are going to die whatever we can sorry if either by cutting costs or by saving ourselves from the virus is the only way now this is the only solution because the government doesn't have any other solutions. to derive a slum in mumbai it's treated could become one of the marist at risk areas. the slum already has almost 50 cases of the virus and 5 deaths running water and so is a luxury from arst. me to our daughter said look we are very scared because people will come into contact and this creates risks. people walk around inside the ravi

it's very crowded in here and the house is a very small people can stay in such small houses old a honey pot with 1000000 people living in just 2 square kilometers social distancing simply isn't possible. you're watching news from berlin i'm claire richardson thank you so much for watching. around the. globe are your concept discover it with our hopes. allegedly after 100 years as the ideals of the bombers and more relevant today than they were 6. 100 years ago visionaries reshaped seems to come back most people are still designed as a way of shaping society.